Gov. Granholm's State of the State address is the same thing she's been saying for years
Gov. Jennifer Granholm gave her eighth and final State of the State address Wednesday. She spoke about Michigan’s failing economy, the need to create jobs and how education will help rebuild the state.
Despite reviewing all of the problems the state is facing, she failed to provide concrete solutions. It sounded just like the speech she gave last year. And the year before that.
Granholm’s speech accomplished nothing, save for reminding citizens of the failing economic climate Michigan can’t seem to get itself out of.
The economy is on the mind of the entire nation, and nowhere else is it more prevalent than in Michigan. The state saw an unemployment rate of 14.3 percent by the end of 2009, the highest in the nation. According to an article in the Washington Post, 632,000 jobs have been lost in Michigan since Granholm took office back in 2003.
The budget deficit is more than $1 billion. The state experienced government shutdowns twice in the last four years. Granholm may have inherited a slipping economy, but she has done little to improve it.
The blame doesn’t lay solely on her, though. Republicans and Democrats in Lansing haven’t been able to work together for years now. The government’s partisan politics have ruined the state. If Michigan is ever to return to its glory days, the leaders in Lansing are going to have to start focusing on what’s best for the citizens instead of worrying how they’ll get re-elected.
The failing auto industry may have not been Granholm’s fault, but her efforts in securing new jobs for the state has yielded little in results.
She swears she is committed to education, but has made record cuts in the state’s public schooling system. How does she expect Michigan to return to the state it was decades ago if the young aren’t given the chance to succeed?
In a world where employees need to have at least a college degree to work even the most menial of jobs, Michigan’s economic state is doing its part to erase any possible future for the youth in this state.
The biggest cut concerning college students has been the Michigan Promise Scholarship, which provided students $4,000 toward attending at least a two-year institution. Granholm claimed that she will bring the scholarship back next year, but it is doubtful that students will hold their breath.
Next January will end Granholm’s tenure. Whoever gets voted in — a Democrat or a Republican — will have their work cut out for them. As for her last year, Granholm should back up her State of the State address with results.
